These days, Kim Kardashian puts herself first.
“Sometimes you need to give yourself a little bit more love,” she told the audience at the TIME100 2023 Summit on Tuesday. “Sometimes other people need a little bit more love. And there’s just enough to go around.”
As a 2015 TIME100 honoree, Kardashian’s remarks came during this year’s TIME100 Summit, a live event which drew leaders from the global TIME100 community to Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, N.Y. Speakers came from the fields of politics, business, sports, health and science, culture, and more. Following an opening performance by singer MILCK, attendees addressed recent artistic, technological, and political developments.
Read more: MILCK on Her Journey of Music and Activism Since Her Viral Women’s March Anthem
On a day with a lot of news, including the announcement of President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, a number of the panelists at the TIME100 addressed the news. Kardashian said she had seen the announcement; she mentioned that she “would love” a meeting with him to discuss criminal justice and commutations.
Speaking to TIME National Political Correspondent Molly Ball, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi welcomed Biden’s reelection campaign. Pelosi said she was “very excited about the President announcing,” while acknowledging some Democrats’ hesitancy about his bid.
“In terms of the Democrats, I know a little bit about that because I go to their meetings all over,” she said. “And yes, they’d rather he be younger. But they’re all for him. … There’s little, shall we say, sidebar stuff, but by-and-large, people understand there’s so much at stake in this election that it’s really important for us to go full strength, full strength Joe Biden.”
New Hampshire Republican governor Chris Sununu, who has flirted with a presidential campaign himself, also discussed the President’s reelection bid. He said he doesn’t believe former President Donald Trump represents the party’s future but doesn’t think Biden will succeed in becoming the Democratic nominee, either. “I think somebody’s going to challenge him, probably right through New Hampshire, too.”
“President Biden, he moves slow, he does not take questions, he rambles and bumbles, so I don’t think we’re putting our best foot forward,” he said.
Asked why Trump holds sway over the Republican Party, Sununu, who noted that he is “no MAGA Republican,” said it’s not about policy: “He creates that empathetic connection with folks’ gut anger.”
Tuesday also marked the death of Harry Belafonte. The audience reacted to the news with shock as John Legend took the stage. Legend paid tribute to Belafonte’s “powerful, revolutionary life.”
Legend weighed in on another news story, too—the use of AI to develop music. He said that he isn’t too threatened by the emergence of AI tools duping artists’ vocals for newly generated songs. Legend told TIME Senior Correspondent Charlotte Alter that audiences feel connected to artists because of the bigger picture of their story, craft, and performance. “AI can’t really do that and I think that’ll be job protection for us,” he said at the TIME 100 Summit.
But Legend added that regulations are necessary and need to be put in place when it comes to using artists’ voices. “AI is going to be a part of our lives and will be something that augments our own intelligence and that’s fine, but when it comes to using someone’s likeness or intellectual property, I believe our rights should still be protected,” he said.
Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg highlighted the importance of preserving art in its original form. “For me, it’s sacrosanct…I do not believe in censorship that way,” he said. He reflected in particular on his decision to replace guns with walkie talkies in his 1982 film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, calling it a “mistake.”
He said the same principle applies for him regarding the removal of language considered offensive from the latest editions of Roald Dahl childhood favorites such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “Nobody should ever take the chocolate out of Willy Wonka, and they shouldn’t take the chocolate or the vanilla or any other flavor out of anything that’s been written,” Spielberg said
The theme of social justice was one that panelists discussed frequently. NBA All-Star, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Carmelo Anthony and WNBA champion and WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike shared how they have used their voices to promote social justice, even as some fans urge them to “shut up and dribble.” Anthony earned applause when he said he tries to convince colleagues to speak out. “You don’t have to stand on what I stand on, or deal with the issue that I have to deal with, but you gotta take care of your community first,” he said. “And everybody does that, then we’ll be okay.”
Ogwumike recalled the “scariest conversation” she ever had, when she was negotiating to make sure players would receive their full pay and be able to dedicate the season to Black Lives Matter. “You still deal with this imposter syndrome of not believing that you’re worth asking for those things when the world is on fire,” she said.
On the subject of health, TIME Senior Health Correspondent Alice Park spoke with David Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Deborah Persaud, a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, about reversing aging and working towards a cure for HIV.
It is, in fact, possible to reverse the effects of aging, Sinclair said: “Our bodies are like a computer; we can reset the software; not in humans yet, but we’re getting close.” Sinclair and his team’s research on mice has allowed them to age the animals on an accelerated timeline, but also to reverse the effects of aging. “We tend to think of aging because it’s natural as something that you just accept; 100 years ago, cancer and heart disease were natural,” Sinclair said. “We’re now at a turning point, the way we were…with cancer and HIV… where we have a much better understanding of what’s causing it.”
Persaud, meanwhile, predicted that a decade from now, scientists will have identified immunotherapies to keep HIV at bay—particularly for children. She was wary of progress towards a full cure but says remission and control of the disease is possible. Persaud pointed out 38 million people worldwide—including 1.7 million children—are living with HIV; it has been a challenge for scientists to find a cure, partly because HIV “evolves as your immune system tries to keep it in check,” she said. If you treat children in the earliest stages of life their health outcomes can be significantly improved, she added.
Following the conclusion of the TIME100 Summit, TIME will host its annual TIME100 Gala celebrating TIME’s 2023 list of the world’s most influential people on April 26. The TIME100 Gala will also take place at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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